WHY HE LOST THE BIG ONE 



By Lyman II. North 



works of art, while others hold characteris- 

 tic poses of relatives and friends that are 

 beyond price to me and which I would never 

 have been able to get with more bulky ap- 

 paratus. 



Probably many would prefer a camera built 

 to handle the Premo Film Pack, and that is 

 certainly a convenient contrivance, but I have 

 used nothing but folding pocket Kodaks, 

 which are probably the most compact of all 

 pocket styles. I began with the 2> l / 2 x3^ 

 inches sizes, but in a couple of years changed 

 it for the 2> X A x AVa inches, fitted with Auto- 

 mat shutter, R.R. lens and glass plate 

 adapter. I do not use glass plates, but there 

 are times when I wish to focus on the 

 ground glass instead of trusting to the scale 

 and finder, and the plate adapter also enables 

 me to take single exposures and to use the 

 rear combination of my lens at long focus. 



I use Eastman's Kodoid plates, which are 

 cut films fastened by clips to sheets of black 

 cardboard, and half a dozen aluminum hold- 

 ers loaded with these are neither heavy nor 

 bulky. One is not in constant fear of getting 

 them broken and the holders can be re-loaded 

 in any dark closet as the pasteboard back is 

 easily distinguished from the film face by 

 touch alone. I carry these when I have some 



special object in view; ordinarily I use roll 

 film, depend on the scale and finder for focus 

 and aim, and must admit some of my best 

 work has been done in this way. 



I regard a shutter having time, bulb, and 

 instantaneous movements as essential to 

 good work and it should work from i-ioo 

 second to about 1-2 or 1-5 second. Such a 

 shutter will have the iris diaphragm. I made 

 a little extension which is easily fitted to the 

 releasing lever for operating the shutter with 

 a thread from a distance, the thread passing 

 through a loop in a wire thrust in the ground 

 under the camera. This simple rig is very 

 handy at times for using the camera with 

 tripod in bird study or for group work, where 

 the operator wishes to be included. 



Next in importance I rate my extension 

 back for using the rear combination of the 

 • lens at long focus. I do not know of a 

 strictly pocket camera with a bellows draw 

 sufficient for this purpose, and for a long 

 time I supposed only the high priced anas- 

 tigmats could be used in this way. At last 

 I found out that the rear combination of a 

 good rapid rectilinear gave very good re- 

 sults in landscape work and that is what 

 one most needs it for. The extension is a 

 simple, home-made affair, a thin wooden box 



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